And Don't Worry
by Flurrin
Summary: When Tsubaki is missing, it's up to him to find her again. This is a journey Black Star must take on his own. Slightly nonlinear. TsuStar, can be read as romantic or platonic, because both are powerful bonds. Now complete.
1. A Battle From Beginning to End?

_Author's note: This is my first real venture into this fandom. I've watched the anime but only read most of the manga, and my headcanons could perhaps clash with canon information, so I would be much obliged if you would point out inconsistencies in your review-even if that's all you have to say, I appreciate the feedback. That said, this story takes place a couple years into the future, so there are technically a few spoilers for the latest chapters. Lastly, yes, this fic was originally based on a Coldplay song, but no, this is not a songfic. Enjoy the story!_

* * *

**Part the First: A Battle From Beginning to End?**

The sole of one foot was balanced on the pinhead tip of the academy's jutting décor. The boy's other leg was bent against his thigh and his arms were crossed as he gazed at the schoolyard like a jaded god, watching the lower life forms dance. Classmates below began to recognize him and point and they quickly cleared a path. They'd learned long ago not to get in his way.

Black Star never fell, per se; the air just wasn't strong enough to hold his _brilliance_. Wind roared in his ears as he descended and the ground cracked when he landed. Only he could have landed with such skill, such finesse! Truly he alone was the mighty Black Star, last of the infamous Star Clan. A clan he would bring back to honor and glory. Everyone would hear of his deeds. A smirk crept up his face as he straightened—until he saw her there.

Only she wasn't really there. He knew that. Her image flickered out, bringing him back to reality.

He'd met Tsubaki on this very spot. It was years ago now. She'd applauded him like the other students might have, and he'd offered her the chance to be his weapon partner right then and there. At first he'd imagined it would be the sort of relationship where he was the king and she was his loyal knight, but she'd grown to be more than that in his eyes. If it was possible for a knight to hold as much power as the king himself, that's what she'd become. She was one of the few blessed people on this earth who deserved to be his equal.

Lately, he almost wondered if she'd been joking when she said 'yes' and, perhaps, only grew attached to him afterwards. But he could never doubt Tsubaki like that. She had always had his back.

Timid footsteps dusted the stony ground behind him. He turned around, expecting Tsubaki to be at his shoulder. In the last few days he'd done the same, only to be met with hollow air in the space where she belonged. This time was different, at least. There was a girl there, it just wasn't _his_ girl.

She had mouse-brown hair and round glasses. A tag on her violet turtle-neck sweater confirmed her as a meister-less weapon. "Uhm, excuse me," she attempted, wringing her pale hands. The words were accompanied by a shy smile. "Are you looking for a new partner?"

Black Star's face went blank for a moment as he processed several different emotions. There was a momentary spark of rage and indignation at the very notion. Then he realized how naïve this girl was and a wide grin broke across his features. Graciously, he refrained from laughing, opting instead to pat her shoulder. Repeatedly. And hard. "Of course not! Tsubaki will be back before you know it. Sorry!"

One of the girl's friends, someone who obviously knew Black Star better, pulled her away with a shake of their head.

Black Star whirled again, placing one toe on the tip of the staircase that marked the entrance to the schoolyard. He had a quest to attend to, and it was about time he set out.

He paused, trying to remember his last conversation with his weapon partner. There'd been so much going on at the time that it was hard to keep the conversation in his memory.

She'd touched his hand, resonating with him so her lilting voice thrummed in his mind. "I have to go now."

"Why?"

"I don't know…but don't try to follow me, okay?"

He considered two skull-decorated rings that had been waiting in his pocket before sheathing two fingers in them. The only thing that encouraged Black Star more than an obstacle was a command forbidding him to deal with it. So, naturally, it was about time that he tracked his partner down.

* * *

It was a beautiful day, and Soul and Maka were taking their lunch break outside in order to enjoy it. Soul had already downed his sandwich and was about to start complaining about Maka's unhurried eating pace when he glanced up at her. Her green eyes were fixed in place and her jaw worked up and down slowly, as if she barely noticed the food in her mouth. He followed her gaze and found Black Star standing on the edge of the academy's borders, putting his foot down on the first stair that denoted his departure.

"Whoa, he's actually doing it." Soul leaned forward, his elbows pressed on his crouching knees.

Maka swallowed before speaking. "Makes me wonder. It is Black Star, after all. Seems like he could actually drag her back here if he wants to."

"Yeah." Soul watched his classmate's light blue hair disappear over the slope of the steps. "Do you think…If something like that ever happened to us, would you go looking for me?"

He couldn't see Maka's winged soul flutter beneath her sternum as her gaze hardened with hypothetical determination. "Every day."

* * *

It was a strange world he'd stumbled into. Black Star was surrounded by rolling hills of mud and the occasional dead tree, and though the horizon was well lit, the sky was black. The moon was a pallid, faceless hole in the inky fabric of the atmosphere through which a calming silver light beamed down. Black Star brushed his fingers against wrinkled bark as the trees began to appear more frequently, leaving visible fingerprints, like glowing paint. All traces faded away after a few minutes, but his soul was having an effect on this fragile, cold realm. He needed to find her before he was discovered and ejected.

He didn't know if Tsubaki would be hard to find again. She'd found him to begin with. It was random chance that she'd first stumbled across his opening act, and the fact that she'd stayed all the way through it was his only defining standard for a weapon partner.

Souls like theirs didn't always mesh. It was true; her type usually got paired with frantic, fretting, pessimistic types. "What if my shoes come untied during a fight?" "What if I miss an important attack?" "What if I mess up and we have to start over?" "What if everything goes wrong?" Her calm reassurance would soothe them both before a battle. She would be important in a duo like that. With him, however…he knew she had provided a pivotal role, but he couldn't put into words what it was. He'd felt every second of her absence like a phantom ache. But when she'd stood with him, she rarely spoke up or intervened, even in the zaniest of schemes. She guided him coolly and recited the basics whenever he started slipping.

And speaking of slipping…

He lost his footing suddenly. Only, the Great Black Star never fell. So, instead of planting his face in the mucky ground, his other leg shot forward and he bore down hard on the step, nearly driving his chin into his knee.

The forced halt drew Black Star's attention to the mud. There was something small and red half-buried under the toe of his boot. He didn't have to pick it up to know what it was. He straightened and scanned the ground ahead of him. The cottony mist was beginning to clear and he could see more and more of the insignificant ruby-red spots littering the area, like a pathway to paradise—or a winding road of blood.

They were the petals of a camellia, the flowers she'd been named for.

"You really wanted me here, huh?" he smiled. "Of course you did. You left a trail for me."


	2. A Cycle of Recycled Revenge?

**Part the Second: A Cycle of Recycled Revenge?**

There was so much silver in this place. Frost gripped the bony trees, and though it was cold, there was no breath of wind. The sky hung over him, mercilessly black, like a shroud. The moon dimmed and with it flickered his hopes of finding Tsubaki quickly.

"Black Star?"

He had become so used to the eerie silence here that the quiet, well-remembered voice shattered him through. He looked up hesitantly from the petal-path to a slim figure standing in the middle of it. "Tsubaki?"

"Black Star!"

He managed one breath in a relieved laugh before Tsubaki surrounded him. The ivory skin, the china-doll eyes, and the hair liked a fanned-out raven's wing—these features were all undoubtedly hers. Her hands flew around his back, crushing him in a hug.

"You came for me! Oh, Black Star! I knew you wouldn't let me go away! Please take me home now. I'm ready. I'm ready to face them again."

All he could see was her back, but he returned her embrace without pulling away, resting his chin on her shoulder. "Ready to face the consequence of what this could mean back at the DWMA?"

"Yes. We can do it together. Let's go home."

They disconnected and her arm ran down the length of his, from the top of his bisected star tattoo to his wrist until they were hand-in-hand and her lovely smile was back in his view.

"That ring will do it, right? Isn't it a portal?" She tapped the bone-white band on his finger reverently and pulled at him.

Black Star's tone darkened quickly as a summer storm. "Yes. But it's not for you, you fraud."

Her blue eyes shot up to his, quizzical and hurt.

He continued boldly. "Tsubaki Nakatsukasa would never go back on a decision. She said she didn't want me to come after her and she meant it."

She stopped, and her expression dulled into a face that reminded him of the Gorgon sister Medusa. "So, you figured it out. You aren't a total halfwit after all."

"Actually, you just told me. Tsubaki would accept my decision either way, that's just the kind of girl she is. But it doesn't matter. I know who you are. I can see a good friend's handiwork all over you."

The person who was _not_ Tsubaki opened her blue eyes. The pupils had been defiled with a star-shaped mark—something that should _only_ belong to the great Black Star. Briefly, angry scars traced themselves across the transfigured form. The voice deepened. "Are you talking about that accursed samurai?"

Black Star nodded affably. "Yeah. He beat you, but I beat _him_. So come on, I can take you on any time, old man."

"You're just a stupid boy. You really think your attempt to walk with the angels will erase years of bloodshed? Will make you more powerful than someone like me?" There was an explosion of shapeless limbs as the monster's body gradually formed into a five-legged spider with a human face and hair like lightning. One clawed foot shot out towards Black Star, but he was already gone, circling the creature at full speed, storing his soul wavelength in his clenched fist.

"Yes! I _do!_" The boy yelled, planting his knuckles in its spine and pummeling it into the mud with the force of his soul.

Frost cracked like glass in the shape of a crater around them.

"Oh, be careful, or you'll fall right out of this world," the spider warned gleefully.

"I'm not going anywhere. Not until I finish what I came here to do," Black Star snarled, battering the breath out of his foe with concussive blows.

The five legs bent backward and swaddled him violently. Before he knew what was happening, bitter fangs sank into his shoulder, and he was seized by the legs and flung away, his wrists trussed with spider silk. He curled his fingers in to keep from losing his ring, flipping upright in midair, and a new line of webbing shot through the loop his arms formed and caught him. He bounced up and down, hanging helpless as a Christmas tree ornament.

"Your own willpower can't save you. Not while you putter about with such weak beings." The shape of a particularly spidery man appeared to balance on the web like a tightrope, taunting the boy below.

Black Star was sick and dizzy with the effects of whatever venom had been injected into him. He attempted to pull himself onto the ropy webbing, but his arms failed him.

The white-haired monster twisted se he hung upside-down before Black Star, keeping their faces level. "I should just make it so you're trapped here forever. That's what you want, right? You and your little lover-girl? Together for all eternity, just like some crappy fairy tale ending!" He licked his serrated teeth, cackling madly. "I'd love to do you that favor. After all, we are both Star Clan."

Just then there was a flash and whirring between them. The web was severed through and Black Star dropped safely to the ground while the nightmarish man scuttled backward along its own thread. Black Star took the opportunity to tear at the stuff on his wrists, freeing himself with his teeth. He glanced in the direction the foreign object that had freed him had flown. There, quivering in the wall of a broken tree, was a long katana.

"You stay out of this! You have no power here!" the monster screamed, completely distracted. Black Star saw his opportunity.

"Maybe he doesn't," he called, risking his element of surprise to indulge in the look of dawning recognition on his opponent's face before punching his lights out. "But I do. I don't walk with the angels, old man! I'm above them!"

His soul wavelength crackled out through his clamped fingers with bone-breaking force. The creature shifted between human and monster forms and eventually just lay still until Black Star decided further attacks could do no more damage than had already been inflicted and stood back.

The creature that had once been a Star Clan ninja crawled away. "Miserable humans," it hissed. "At least it gives me some comfort to know my son is a worthy opponent."

"Yeah. Great meeting you, Dad," Black Star commented.

The boy turned to the katana, but it melted away in the wind until all that remained were silver leaves. He gave a fond half-smile anyway. "Thanks, Mifune."

* * *

Death the Kid remembered watching Black Star—no less than the great Black Star—being carried away on a stretcher. He was unconscious but his eyes were open, darting sightlessly around the ceiling, his fingers twitching. The front of his sleeveless shirt had been stained wine red from his chest to his lap.

"So this is the outcome of the mighty Black Star's first solo mission," he had muttered.

He'd sat in the infirmary with Liz and Patti for hours, listening to the boy's struggled breathing and sleep-talking. When Black Star did wake up, he was different. He was quiet and contemplative, gazing out the window and constantly asking after the well-being of Tsubaki.

"Don't you remember what happened?" Kid would ask him.

Black Star would narrow his eyes dangerously. "You're the one who sent her away, so you had better know how she's doing."

Kid would shut up after that, and Patti and Liz would exchange glances before leaving the room. They still weren't used to all of his responsibilities as a fully-realized reaper. Neither was he, to be honest. And since his father had been bound to Death City, it seemed as though he'd had half the responsibilities his son now had to deal with.

Currently, Death the Kid was staring out over the town. Black Star was out here somewhere. He'd escaped his bed in the infirmary and gone so far as to break the window to get out. But Black Star didn't know how to find Tsubaki. Only Kid knew that. So he waited.

He finally picked up the trail of the Star Clan boy's soul along the streets and predicted where he would show up. There was a wide fountain where Tsubaki and Black Star had last been sent on a mission together—a mission they'd failed. But the water feature itself wasn't the exact spot where they'd failed. The_ exact_ spot was a thin, shady alleyway leading toward the fountain's plaza. Kid looked down on it from a curved rooftop above.

"Well, that's no good," he commented when Black Star finally appeared in the narrow alleyway. "Everyone knows you're a ninja, not a samurai."

The blue-haired boy was wearing a jacket across his shoulders to keep his arms free. He was propped up against a katana—where on earth had he found a real katana?—because he couldn't support his own weight at the moment. Bandages held his torso together, but to anyone oblivious to the damage Black Star had taken in his last fight, they looked more like a _sarashi_. He'd stopped to catch his breath after hobbling this far, but he glared at Kid with a joyless expression, clearly not amused. "Shut up. You're the reason she's gone. I don't want to talk to you right now."

"Let's be serious for a minute." Kid flipped down from the rooftop he'd been perched on, letting his two weapons spin out of his hands. As he landed, Patti and Liz materialized beside him. Patti looked on in wide-eyed pity, and Liz's lips were pulled to one side.

Kid was distracted for a moment by the fact that the two girls had landed perfectly in place either side of him, but he quickly refocused when he noticed their expressions didn't match. He cleared his throat. "You know Tsubaki wouldn't have wanted you to rush out like this, with no real plan in mind."

"Yeah, she wouldn't have wanted this. So what are you saying? That she wanted to die?"

Kid frowned. "That's not my place to say—"

"Yeah, it sure as _h_—" Black Star's attempt to raise his voice accusingly ended with him wrapping one arm around his torso, his words cut off by a grunt of pain. Sweat beaded on his brow. "It sure wasn't. But I don't care what you have to say about it. I'm bringing Tsubaki back and fighting with you won't help my chances, but if you really want a battle, bring it on."

"Black Star," Liz burst out. "We're not actually here to stop you."

"Yeah, we're here to help!" Patti joined in.

"I can't actually come with you, this is something only one person can do on their own," Kid explained. "And there's no guarantee it will work. But I can set you on the right path." He took a step back, waving his wrists in a complex pattern. Power shot through his fingertips and white light carved intricate patterns in the air. Death the Kid slammed the designs into the street with a wave, and as Black Star watched, a familiar skull symbol was whittled out of the ground. It opened into a black hole, with three circular steps leading down.

Kid blew off his index fingers—both together at the same time, due to his compulsive needs—as though they were the smoking barrels of his weapon partners. "This is the portal. You can just jump in when you're ready. It's a kind of mirror universe, so you'll land safely after a little confusion."

Black Star was already in the air when the space beneath him slammed shut and he landed solidly, glaring up at Kid from between his bent knees.

"Ah, ah, ah…" Kid tutted, though not condescendingly. "There is one condition."

"Yeah, and what's that?" the boy spat, falling back onto his rump.

Kid pursed his lips, his eyes wandering over Black Star's various bandages. "You need to heal first." He slipped the two skull-adorned rings off of his fingers and dropped them into Black Star's open hand. "The first one will get you there," he explained, "and the second one will bring you home. You have to promise to be patient. Tsubaki isn't going anywhere soon. Also..." He stared at the street for a moment, then looked back up. "The 'D' In DWMA still stands for Death. If you do this...I cannot allow you to come back to my academy, do you understand?"

Black Star glared at the bone-white jewelry like the rings were each a vial of poison, then he smothered them in his fist and looked back up at the young reaper, nodding.

Kid turned to leave, but then he paused, and his yellow eyes slid over to meet Black Star's. "Before you go, keep one thing in mind. Don't look at them with your eyes. Anyone who looks human in that place is evil."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thanks, Reaper."

"I'm serious!" Kid grabbed his shoulder. "A pure soul does not reflect any earthly body. It reflects the spirit. If you find Tsubaki—"

"When I find her," Black Star corrected coolly.

"Whatever. Don't look for a person. When you find Tsubaki, she won't be human anymore."


	3. Death and All His Friends

**Part the Third: Death and All His Friends.**

The mission was supposed to be simple: Hunt down the pre-kishin that had wandered dangerously close to the school, defeat it, and return triumphant. And they knew immediately when they found the right guy, slinking down the streets of Death City like he owned the place. He had the shape of a human at first, but when he turned to glare at him, his appearance took on the characteristics of a lizard, completely with long, slit tongue. He was a serial killer who targeted young women, and he'd already been successful enough to have lost his human form.

It should have been a clue that the creature was bold enough to come so close.

The first part of the battle was smooth. Black Star went in and out, like a wolf snapping, and Tsubaki's attacks were timed perfectly to his rhythm. They didn't managed to inflict any real damage, but they avoided getting hurt themselves. The monster they were up against tilted to keep them in sight, whirling three long, leather cords with stones affixed to the ends in one clawed hand. The object thrummed in an angry circle.

"Points for creativity," Black Star commented. "Tsubaki, what is that thing?"

"It's a bolas," she informed him. "A big one. They're usually used to tangle up or break an animal's legs, so don't let him swing low, okay?"

"As if he could hit a big star like me!" he started to say, then he had to jump as the cords swept underneath him. He decided to save it for later.

"Your soul," muttered the pre-kishin. "I want...your soul."

Black Star inwardly selected a fire escape behind their enemy as a good vantage point. "Tsubaki, smoke-bomb to chain-scythe-mode!"

"Got it!" Tsubaki set off a cloud of black haze, shielding them from the killer's eyes, before shifting to land in Black Star's hands as he darted around and behind their opponent. The weapon did her best to stifle the clanking of her chains as Black Star used her as a grappling hook to pull himself onto the metal fire escape stairs. They could not avoid making noise, however, so as soon as Tsubaki had changed back into a human, Black Star slid over and kicked at a line of lumber resting against the wall, sending it crashing down away from them. The smoke had not yet cleared, but they could make out the shape of their target, which shifted to squint at the fallen pile of debris.

"This is it," Black Star whispered as the air began to clear. "My big finale." He stood with one foot on the handrail, ready to jump over, his hands curled into fists.

"It's not time for that yet, Black Star, we haven't even landed a hit yet." Tsubaki tugged on his vest, attempting to pull him back down. "Just be patient and don't—"

Black Star plunged with a roar just as the pre-kishin turned to spot them.

The boy balled his hands into fists, prepared to hit the target in the face with his soul wavelength. To say that the creature merely sidestepped him would be an understatement—Black Star went completely ignored as he landed, which only made him angrier, and blinded him to the very simple fact that _Tsubaki _was the target here, not him, and he'd left her unprotected.

Two sickening cracks broke Black Star out of his furious daze. Once when the bolas wrapped its leather cord and stones around Tsubaki's skull, and again when she was yanked down from the metal staircase and driven head-first into the street.

Black Star rushing off to defeat the bad guy on his own was supposed to be something Tsubaki could chuckle about later on. It had always been that way with them. To be honest, she was the one person that he would allow to have a good laugh at his expense.

The boy was frozen for a moment as globules of Tsubaki's blood splattered across the ground like wine-red flower petals. The pre-kishin formed an arch over her, its jaw unhinging like a snake's. "Your soul!"

"_Get away from her!_" Black Star became a wall between the monster and his fallen partner, his eyes glinting with a dangerous light. His arm drove fearlessly into the gaping maw to land a vicious punch on the roof of its mouth, and his soul wavelength fried anything beyond that. The pre-kishin toppled backwards, its eyes still locked open in surprise, and disappeared, leaving no trace except a glowing red soul.

Black Star calmed himself with several deep breaths, trying to pretend he hadn't been trembling like a fool the whole time he performed what was probably the coolest fight move he'd ever invented accidentally.

"How was _that!_" He shouted. A shutter broke free from a nearby window, as if the force of his very voice had snapped it off. "This world really is too fragile for me, huh, Tsubaki?"

He turned, only to find that she hadn't moved since the attack. Her hair had broken free of the restraining ponytail and pooled around her in long rivulets, her shoulder pressed into the ground. Black Star automatically dropped to his knees and helped her turn face-up.

Her eyes were open, trembling, but unseeing. He passed a hand in front of her, his brow laden with concern. "Hey, Tsubaki, are you all right?"

Her mouth croaked out a wordless noise. Black Star managed to keep calm right up until he noticed the blood still running from the left side of her temple, and the damage that had been inflicted there.

"_Tsubaki!_"

* * *

The quietest days of Black Star's life were spent at Tsubaki's bedside. The sun would rise and set and he, with his ninja endurance training, would hardly move from his chair. She would just stare at him and try to smile, and he would help to change the bandages wrapped around her skull. Much of her hair was gone now, removed, but what remained still flowed down one shoulder like a stream of ink. During that whole time, she couldn't speak. Nygus said she had something called aphasia, which had been caused by the head trauma. He kept waiting for her to recover. He wanted to wake up one day and hear her whispering his name—even if it was the only thing she could say. She couldn't even read anymore, let alone write. Only when they resonated together could she express her thoughts to him, but it was a very taxing process and usually left her unconscious for days at a time.

One day, she didn't need to. It was cold in the room and she looked at him with just a hint of pleading, and he understood without words that she wanted him near. He abandoned his chair to move behind her, letting her sit up against him and chastely curling his legs to one side of her. It wasn't an incredibly comfortable position for him, but he didn't care. Tsubaki managed a smile and closed her eyes, comforted by his closeness. They sat like that, silent and still for hours, sharing nothing but their warmth, until they were both startled by a knock.

The door opened, and Death the Kid stood in the entryway, his gaze downcast. Liz was visible in the hallway, but she did not follow him in.

"What's up, Kid?" Black Star asked quietly, suddenly self-conscious at being caught so close to his partner but unwilling to pull away.

"I…" The reaper swallowed when he looked at them and quickly dropped his eyes again. "It's difficult for me to say this, Black Star, but I'm here to perform one of my duties."

"What would that be?" the ninja asked, still not catching on. Tsubaki gave a sigh. Black Star pulled her closer and suddenly their souls connected, forming a resonance link. She spoke inside his mind then, using impressions rather than words, but still getting the message across clearly.

"He's here for me, Black Star. I have to go now," she told him.

His grip tightened around her until he was afraid her bones might break, but he couldn't make himself let go. "…Why?"

In his mind, she just smiled. "I don't know, it's not for me to say. But can you promise me something? Don't try to follow me, okay?"

"Follow…you?" He still couldn't fathom what was happening.

"Close your eyes," she whispered, and he did, blocking out the room to focus on her. But all at once the image of her in his head seemed to fly from him until he was left alone in the dark and his eyes snapped open.

Tsubaki was limp in his grip, the breath gone from her. A wide-eyed and trembling Death the Kid had moved to stand beside them, clutching something gently, as though it were a baby bird. It was Tsubaki's soul.

Black Star released the body that had once been his partner, staring at the glowing orb in horror. "Kid, you…"

Elizabeth Thompson seemed to materialize beside him, stopping him from lunging at Death the Kid with one hand even as she bit back her own revulsion at the scene.

"It—it was my father's responsibility to put the people of this school to rest when their time came, a-and now that duty has been passed on to me…" Kid tried to explain, but he was interrupted by a slew of curses from Black Star, who struggled past Liz.

"Put it back!" were the first intelligible words the now partnerless meister could find to say.

Kid found himself seized by the throat and hoisted high, staring into mad, star-tattooed green eyes. On any other day he could have fought off the Star Clan boy with ease. On any other day, however, he hadn't had to pull the soul out of someone close to him. Even if he had words now, he couldn't squeeze them past Black Star's grip on his windpipe. But he could not let go of Tsubaki's soul.

"Black Star!" Liz's arm became a death canon pressed up against the ninja's light cerulean hair. "Let him go."

For a moment it seemed like he wouldn't, like he was not the same boy anymore. Then his fingers loosened.

Kid slipped to the floor, sucking in air even though breathing was optional for him. "Nygus!" he yelled, alerting the nurse as she passed in the hallway. She understood what was happening as soon as she caught a glimpse of Liz's sweat-speckled face and managed to yank Black Star's arms behind his back, dragging him out of the room. Stein had heard the commotion and he joined the struggle as Kid just stared emptily at the golden soul burning in his hands, much too distracted to rebuke Liz for only using one unbalanced gun.

"Tsubaki's dead, Black Star," Stein shouted at him when they were in the hallway. "She's been dying slowly ever since you brought her back here, and now you have to let her rest in peace."

Back in the room, Kid heard them and shuddered his way out of his daze.

"You won't have many friends left if you do it in person like this," Liz said, shaken.

Kid's eyes narrowed suddenly. "I won't have _any_ friends left if I let them die young."

Stein reentered a few minutes later to pull a sheet over Tsubaki's lifeless form, his face grim.

"Stein," Kid muttered to him. "Take good care of that."

The man turned to look at him, but Kid's attention was drawn entirely to the soul fluttering in his cupped hands.

"Take care of it. She may need it again."

* * *

The sky was beginning to lighten from that smothering blackness to a breath of gold. Each step Black Star took was laden with purpose. He'd already overcome the trials this place had to offer and now he was coming to the end of the path Tsubaki had set for him. Victory was his and soon he and Tsubaki would both be back in the world of the living.

Preoccupied by this buoyant thought, he took one more step and passed it: the last camellia petal. Black Star stopped and checked either side of him, eventually rotating in a full circle to make sure he hadn't missed something. Then he swallowed and looked straight ahead again.

He was staring into a white void.

His feet were perched on the rocky edge of a cliff that was woven through with old roots and there was nothing visible below but mist. No hint, no sign, no further direction.

Before now, the thought had never even occurred to him that he would fail.

The already-surreal world seemed to spin around him. Black Star slumped down, staring at the absence of flower petals in the sludge, and trying so hard to ignore the voice in his head suggesting the possibility that she was dead and there was nothing he could do to fix that.

Of course there was something he could do. He was the great Black Star, a god among men, kishinslayer, last remaining member of Star Clan—

He saw no further point to it and fell onto his side, his teeth clenched to bite back his despair. He took several shuddering breaths. It was all his fault that she died in the first place. Perhaps by coming here he wanted to find some kind of redemption, but if she wasn't waiting for him, than all he'd been following was false hope.

He got up on his hands, looking out over the cliff again, his gaze wandering feverishly for anything to focus on. "Tsubaki? Tsubaki, are you there? …Tsubaki!"

She did not answer him. Of course she didn't. She couldn't. She was dead. He just had to accept that. He'd come all this way for nothing. She wouldn't have wanted him to cling like this, to challenge Death itself, the one thing even the great Black Star would never be able to overcome.

He hated this place. Not because it was horrible, because he'd long left behind the stale, decrepit sections, but because he was lying on the very gates of paradise now, and if he liked this place so much, what chance did he have of getting his partner back from the other side of it?

He pulled himself up until he was sitting cross-legged, his knees poking out over the Cliffside, bent double with his arms hanging limply to either side. His eyes stung. He kept them closed.

There was a light touch on his shoulder.

He did not dare turn around, but he knew without looking that she'd found him. It was her soul, so distinctly in resonance with his, as it had been when she died. He blinked, his heart speeding up. It wasn't just Tsubaki. The Nakatsukasa family backed her, watching him carefully.

He drew in the sweet air before speaking. "Tsubaki."

The white void began to turn sunny—an empty sunlight, but welcome all the same.

Black Star stood, still afraid to turn around. "So I've realized something, Tsubaki."

The hum of her anticipation echoed around, encouraging him. "I've realized," he continued, "I've never really asked you what you wanted to do."

There was silence, but it was a shared silence. A breeze stroked his frizzy hair tentatively, and he noticed for the first time that he hadn't felt the wind since he'd arrived here.

"It might sound stupid, but with all that free time, you would start each day by asking what we were gonna do. And I never even thought about whether you agreed with me or not. You just went along. That's the kind of person you are, but…but I'm not sure it's the kind of person you want to be forever. So if I promised to start here and ask what it is you want, maybe…you might come back with me. Back…to life." He scratched the back of his neck. "And I don't even know. Maybe if we went back, it would just be like those last few days, and I'd end up taking care of you forever. But, I…. You should know I'm okay with that, if it happens. But I can understand why you…wouldn't be. So in the end, it's your choice to make."

He turned to where he could sense her presence and pinched his eyes shut again. "Tsubaki…do you want to stay here with your family in paradise, or do you think it's worth it to come back with me for a while?" He held out one hand, the one with the ring—their key homeward—on it.

Her fingers curled around his.

He opened his eyes and for a brief second he saw her before him with her arms on her knees. A little girl, short enough to meet his eyes without crouching, a smile curling her face and blue eyes. Then the wind picked up, and light came through her like water through paper. Black Star forced his eyes shut once more, but he didn't dare tighten his fist around the hand that she'd offered him. It was hers and hers alone to decide whether he would ever let go again.

When the wind died down, Black Star stood and opened his hand. A young camellia blossom, tinged with the blue of her eyes, rested on his palm. Tucked shyly inside the bud was the small, glowing, golden orb of her soul.

He smiled at her. "Right, are you ready to find our way out of here?"

Her voice was in his mind. "Ready, Black Star. You lead the way."


End file.
